Happy Trails......"Air" McNair.....

Steve McNair........

A "mans' .....man. A black quarterback who excelled at the highest level. Today, Steve McNair retired from professional football.

No teary eyed press conference..........no fanfare..........just a retirement. So refreshing.....coming on the heels of a guy named Brett Farve..........and that media fiasco. Oh....he's crying.....Oh........so ......Brett!....

No.......McNair had dignity ..........a dignity attained from a life of being .......black.

Nothing came easy..........He was a star quarterback in high school.....but.....none of the big schools recruited him. If they did, they wanted him to play defensive back. After all, he was a black athlete..........he could not (in their eyes) play the QB position in major college football.


From Wikipedia....

College career

McNair, is a native of Mount Olive, Mississippi and played collegiately for Alcorn State University, a historically black university which competes in the NCAA's Division I-AA Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC). Many major colleges recruited McNair to play defensive back, but Alcorn was one of the few institutions that recruited McNair to play quarterback. Steve followed the footsteps of his older brother, Fred McNair (who played at Alcorn 1986-1989) and chose to attend Alcorn State University.

In his senior season (1994), he amassed incredible statistics - throwing for 4,863 yards with 44 touchdowns and rushing for 936 yards. McNair was subsequently selected with the third pick in the 1995 NFL Draft by the Houston Oilers. McNair was brought along slowly in the NFL by the Oilers, backing up or sharing time with quarterbacks Chris Chandler and Dave Krieg.

Chris Chandler.....Dave Krieg?..........Where are they......now?

Surely not of McNairs' statue...........Here are his stats in the NFL:

Career statistics

			Passing								Rushing
Season	Team		GP	Comp	Att	Pct	Yds	TD	INT		Att	Yds	TD
1995	Houston Oilers		4	41	80	51.3	569	3	1		11	38	0
1996	Houston Oilers		9	88	143	61.5	1197	6	4		31	169	2
1997	Tennessee Oilers		16	216	415	52.0	3228	14	13		101	674	8
1998	Tennessee Oilers		16	289	492	58.7	3228	15	10		77	559	4
1999	Tennessee Titans		11	187	331	56.5	2179	12	8		72	337	8
2000	Tennessee Titans		16	248	396	62.6	2847	15	13		72	403	0
2001	Tennessee Titans		15	264	431	61.3	3350	21	12		75	414	5
2002	Tennessee Titans		16	301	492	61.2	3387	22	15		82	440	3
2003	Tennessee Titans		14	250	400	62.5	3215	24	7		38	138	4
2004	Tennessee Titans		8	129	215	60.0	1343	8	9		23	128	1
2005	Tennessee Titans		14	292	476	61.3	3161	16	11		32	139	1
2006	Baltimore Ravens		16	295	468	63.0	3050	16	12		45	119	1
2007	Baltimore Ravens		6	133	205	64.9	1113	2	4		10	32	0
	*Totals		161	2733	4544	60.1	31304	174	119		669	3590	37

I don't believe McNair will ever be inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame........but he will be in my Hall of Fame of great black quarterbacks..........

Air McNair..............from little old Alcorn State...........You stood tall.....you .......were a man......

ESPN's story on McNair.......

Take a look: